Long delayed SKorea-US trade deal takes effect

A long-stalled free trade deal between South Korea and the United States went into effect at midnight Wednesday about five years after the two countries struck the accord aimed at slashing tariffs and other trade barriers.

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A long-delayed free trade agreement between the United States and South Korea took effect Thursday winning warm praise from the two countries' leaders but stirring scattered protests in Seoul.The agreement means export-dependent South Korea now has trade pacts with the world's two biggest economic areas, after a deal with the European Union went into force last July.The pact, which scraps duties on thousands of items, is the biggest for the United States since the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994.

At long last, the US-Korea FTA looks to be headed for the very-delayed finish line:
The United States and South Korea have a reached a deal on auto issues that have blocked congressional approval of a free-trade agreement for three years, sources familiar with the talks said on Friday.
As part of the deal, South Korea agreed to let the United States keep a 2.5 percent tariff on Korean-built cars for five more years, rather than cut it immediately, the sources said.

U.S. trade policy, hobbled for years by partisan bickering, has been reinvigorated with a new level of ambition and scope. President Barack Obama, considered a trade skeptic when he first came into office in 2008, is now pursuing free trade zones spanning both the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans.

AP - FREE TRADE PUSH: The leaders of South Korea and the United States agreed to try to finalize a long-stalled free trade deal ahead of a summit of major economies set for late next week, the office of South Korea's president said.

ETF Database submits: South Korean equities have been in focus as of late but for all the wrong reasons; rising tensions with the often volatile North finally bubbled over earlier this year as the communist regime shelled an island of their long-time South Korean rival. The South Koreans responded in kind, launching mortars of their own while scrambling jets in preparation for any further escalation.

[AP] - South Korea and the United States failed to score a breakthrough on a long-stalled free trade agreement and will keep negotiating, their presidents said Thursday, in a sharp setback to hopes of speedily ratifying the ambitious accord.

In a display of unshakeable unity against nuclear-armed North Korea, US President Barack Obama has agreed to wrap up a long delayed free trade deal with South Korea and extend Washington's wartime command of South Korean forces.As tensions surged on the Korean peninsula after Pyongyang was blamed for a deadly attack on a Seoul warship, Obama held warm talks with South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak, declaring that "our friendship and alliance continues to grow" both on the security and economic fronts.